diff --git a/repair.sh b/repair.sh
index 367b30e6..057cd3d5 100755
--- a/repair.sh
+++ b/repair.sh
@@ -165,11 +165,12 @@ fi
 chown wrolpi:wrolpi /media/wrolpi 2>/dev/null || echo "Ignoring failure to change media directory permissions."
 # Ensure the config directory is owned by wrolpi so the API can write config files.
 [ -d /media/wrolpi/config ] && chown -R wrolpi:wrolpi /media/wrolpi/config 2>/dev/null || :
-# On bootstrapped systems the Postgres cluster lives under config/postgresql (bind-mounted to
-# /var/lib/postgresql and /etc/postgresql).  It must stay owned by postgres, or new backends
-# die with: FATAL: could not open file "global/pg_filenode.map": Permission denied.
-if [ -d /media/wrolpi/config/postgresql ] && id postgres >/dev/null 2>&1; then
-  chown -R postgres:postgres /media/wrolpi/config/postgresql 2>/dev/null || :
+# On Portable (live-boot) systems the Postgres cluster lives under config/postgresql,
+# bind-mounted over /var/lib/postgresql — so the config chown above just swept it.  Restore
+# ownership only when that bind is active; on installed systems Postgres lives on the root
+# filesystem and any config/postgresql directory is inert (dead weight or a user's backup).
+if mountpoint -q /var/lib/postgresql 2>/dev/null && id postgres >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+  chown -R postgres:postgres /var/lib/postgresql /etc/postgresql 2>/dev/null || :
 fi
 
 # Remove immutable flag from blob files before chown (may not exist or may not be set).